Dear SAISD Family Member, 
 
It is truly a joy, honor, and privilege to serve our 79 square miles of excellence with you. 
 
As we continue to excel in our January to June initiative, we are reminded of the story “212 Degrees – The Extra Degree.” You see at 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. With boiling water comes steam, and steam can power a locomotive. Raising the temperature of water by just one extra degree means the difference between something that is very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine.
 
This example reminds us that seemingly small things can make a tremendous impact. Henry Ford once stated, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress, and working together is success.”
 
Mr. Ford must have had all of our SAISD family members in mind when he provided this quote. Today I would like to recognize two departments that exemplify the extra degree of effort while working together toward success.
 
Our Child Nutrition Services Department, led by Senior Executive Director Jenny Arredondo, provides breakfast, lunch, supper, snack meals, as well as holiday bundle meals, to all of our SAISD families. Staff members also provide our students with 1.5 million bananas, 2 million apples, and 13 million cartons of milk. Across our school district, we serve 73,000 meals per day and anticipate serving approximately 15 million meals this year as we support our families.
 
Our Transportation Department, led by Senior Executive Director of Transportation and Vehicle Maintenance Nathan Graf, oversees the transporting of our students. Our school buses travel over 2.7 million miles per year delivering students to a variety of events. To put that into perspective, it is like traveling around the world 108 times. They also transport the equivalent of 1.8 million students annually to and from school, which is like transporting the entire population of San Antonio Texas. It is also important to note that SAISD is the only school district in Bexar County that has Wi-Fi, cameras, a student locator badge, and a parent locator app on every school bus.
 
It has been said that we should not limit our challenges but instead challenge our limits. In using our Transportation Department and Child Nutrition Services as an example of excellence, it is clearly obvious that as we fully devote ourselves to our aspirations, we will conquer every challenge that comes before us, and we will become the exceptional school district that we aspire to be.
 
On behalf of our Board of Trustees, thank you for your belief in our school district and for reminding us all that SAISD is too great for small dreams.
 
Have a “Fantastic Friday” and “Wonderful Weekend.”
 
We are “SAISD PROUD.”
 
"Dr. J"
 
Robert Jaklich, Ed. D.
 
"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
~Mahatma Gandhi